Win7 and Access 97

I have a MySQL database in which I've gathered all sorts of data about the churches in the Gironde, where I live in France, data which will finish in a Web site dedicated to places of worship and pilgrimage around here. Being a retired MS Access 97 developer, I use an Access db and app as a front-end to the MySQL db. This has worked quite well under WinXP. Now I'm trying to move to Win7. Unfortunately trying to install updates to Access 97 fails, always at the same point, with this message in the log file:
Move C:\Windows\Fonts\TAHOMA.TTF to C:\Windows\Fonts\sr1D45A.tmp
Unable to open C:\Windows\Fonts\TAHOMA.TTF
sr2 patch fail

The FONTS folder has special permissions and I've tried to change them, so the install could proceed. The more I read about system folders in general and the FONTS folder in particular, the less I understand. I've tried a number of suggestions I found on the Web, without success. Anybody have any idea about how to install the patches, so I can get on with my project?

Harvey Morgan, in Bordeaux where there are not only great wine properties but places of worship that date back to the Romans

It appears that Access 97 is not compable with Win 7. This forum from MS may have some answers. It appears that if you do not have access to XP Mode (Win 7 pro or above) How To Geek shows a method of installing an XP Mode like environment. You might also consider upgrading to a newer version of Access, which might have it's own problems in converting your Access 97 database as mentioned in the MS forum.

Until very recently I used Office 2000 in Windows 7, and Access worked just fine. (The only part of the suite that didn't work was the Address Book in Outlook. Outlook could send and receive mail, but couldn't store an address book).

Of course, getting your hands on Office 2000 might not be an easy task, either.

Does Access 97 run in Windows 7 without the updates?

Last edited by bbearren; 2011-07-23 at 07:11.

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes, in case you need to start over!

"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Savvy?"—Captain Jack Sparrow "When you're troubleshooting, start with the simple and proceed to the complex."—M.O. Johns "Experience is what you get when you're looking for something else."—Sir Thomas Robert Deware. Unleash Windows

You might also consider upgrading to a newer version of Access, which might have its own problems in converting your Access 97 database as mentioned in the MS forum.

Unfortunately that costs money! However, now that I'm retired to Europe, the land of open-source software, I don't buy software anymore, except for Windows itself. So these days, I do MySQL, PHP, Firefox, etc. However, I still have the Office 97 CD from the days when I was a MS Solutions Provider and I'm so used to accessing (or is that ACCESSing?) databases a certain way, I revert to what I know.

If the data is in the MySQL database and you are only using Access as a front end to that data, there are free alternatives for the front-end. Since you work with PHP, you should be able to write up some PHP papes to provide that access. Or use a PHP framework such as Cake (http://cakephp.org/) - it will generate a complete CRUD front end for data in a database with just a few commands. And with a few more lines of code you can easily customize that front end. Ruby-on-Rails provides a similar capability. Also, I suspect that there are various open source front-ends to MySQL that also provide CRUD.

If the data is in the MySQL database and you are only using Access as a front end to that data, there are free alternatives for the front-end. Since you work with PHP, you should be able to write up some PHP papes to provide that access. Or use a PHP framework such as Cake (http://cakephp.org/) - it will generate a complete CRUD front end for data in a database with just a few commands. And with a few more lines of code you can easily customize that front end. Ruby-on-Rails provides a similar capability. Also, I suspect that there are various open source front-ends to MySQL that also provide CRUD.

None of the alternatives I know get to come close to the flexibility and ease of Access, even in its 97 incarnation, and much less a web based alternative. No web dev alternatives are a match on ease, speed of development and available UI elements, to Access.

Thought of one more possibility: OpenOffice.org Base, or LibreOffice Base. This is supposed to be similar to Access, and I know that it provides connectivity to MySQL. Yes, it probably will not be exactly the same as Access 97 which you are obviously comfortable with, but at least the price is right.

None of the alternatives I know get to come close to the flexibility and ease of Access, even in its 97 incarnation, and much less a web based alternative. No web dev alternatives are a match on ease, speed of development and available UI elements, to Access.

[QUOTE=cafed00d;811821]Thought of one more possibility: OpenOffice.org Base, or LibreOffice Base. This is supposed to be similar to Access, and I know that it provides connectivity to MySQL. Yes, it probably will not be exactly the same as Access 97 which you are obviously comfortable with, but at least the price is right.[/QUO

There's another factor I didn't mention: I wrote my first program in 1967. I've been thru enough paradigm shifts, programming languages and databases, that I'm hoping Object-Oriented Programming, PHP, MySQL and SQLite are the last I need to learn. To avoid learning HTML5, CSS and Javascript, I'm implementing my Web site as a wiki, using Wikimedia. I'd prefer to work on my data now, rather than master yet another tool.

I do have a copy of Office 2000. Unfortunately one of the patches must be downloaded from Microsoft, and they've taken down all patches relating to Off2000.

It does run, but I'm nervous about using it without the patches.

Harvey

Have you tried installing the file convertors for later versions of Office? That will put you into the availability group of updates for many Office 2007 patches.

Create a fresh drive image before making system changes, in case you need to start over!

"The problem is not the problem. The problem is your attitude about the problem. Savvy?"—Captain Jack Sparrow "When you're troubleshooting, start with the simple and proceed to the complex."—M.O. Johns "Experience is what you get when you're looking for something else."—Sir Thomas Robert Deware. Unleash Windows